‘The Öresund bridge, which over the past 15 years has been a proud monument of regional integration across national borders, will lose its symbolism.’
Photograph: TT News Agency/Reuters

On Monday, a new Swedish law came into force that demands, for the first time in around 50 years, that travellers at the Denmark-Sweden border produce photo ID. The centre for these checks will be Kastrup, Denmark’s international airport, where there is also a train line between the two countries. But the Öresund bridge, which over the past 15 years has been a proud monument of integration across national borders, will also now lose its symbolism.

The Öresund region, which straddles Sweden and Denmark, has been lauded the world over as a successful example of how businesses, civil society and people can integrate across national and cultural divides. Education, business, work and love have made the region fuse. With ID checks, this vision and reality will effectively be sabotaged.

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Those of us who live in the area don’t understand why our lives should be suddenly altered to achieve short-term national goals, in response to a political crisis on a European and global level. That’s where the solutions have to be looked for, not by constricting the artery between two states and cultures that are unusually close.

The official reason for the arrangement is the increasing flow of refugees, caused by multiple conflicts and unstable governments across the world. But this pretence of caring for the safety of the nation stands in sharp contrast to the fundamental values on which our political community is built. Not least, the freedoms of citizens are being violated without them having given their permission. Sweden’s European integration, and its international position as a humanitarian sanctuary, is being gambled away by panic-stricken decision-makers.

With support from the Swedish far right, insufficient preparatory legal work and non-existent analysis of regional consequences, the Swedish Riksdag has undermined its own reputation for competence. A first step towards regaining its political authority would be to tear up the ruling and look for a solution to the problem at a higher level.

A borderless Europe cannot be a dream reserved for times of perfect peace

But it’s going to be difficult to repair the people’s trust in their government. Normal everyday life for hundreds of thousands of people in the Öresund region rests on the freedoms promised by the EU 20 years ago. It’s absurd to think that, all of a sudden, the clock has been turned back to an era when Europe didn’t exist, and that the isolation of nations is seen as a logical and pragmatic alternative. A borderless Europe cannot be a dream reserved for times of perfect peace.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that people in the Öresund region object to what is widely seen as a decision made from the perspective of the Swedish capital. Since 23 December 2015 more than 22,000 people have “liked” a Facebook page called “The Öresund revolution”. The government moved a step closer to a political precipice by pushing though this law with the support of the rightwing populist party Sverigedemokraterna. Even worse, the government never sought a regional dialogue. Nobody came to the south of Sweden to speak with us or explain why our freedoms are worth less than the alleged safety of the nation.

We’re particularly outraged by how easily our freedom of movement is impeded and how the cosmopolitan humanity that so characterises Sweden internationally has been thrown into doubt. The only thing to do is to bin these ID checks and start listening to the people for whom the border between two countries is no longer a border – and rightly so.